What Worked This Week in Secondary Reading: Introduction

I had a brilliant idea last week! At least I think it’s a brilliant idea.

Now that I’m back in the classroom, teaching my little heart out, I’m going to do my best to blog each week about what is working in my classroom. I don’t claim to know everything about Secondary Reading instruction and I don’t claim that just because it worked in my classroom it will work in your classroom (I can’t even guarantee that it will work in my classroom next week), but I do believe that positive stories about successfully educating students is one small piece to the puzzle of what keep us going back to the classroom each day.

So take these stories for what they are: reflections of the positive, hilarious aspects of my week that make getting out of bed next Monday possible.

Here is some background on me and my classroom. This is my 14^th year in public education. I spent most of my career working with urban students in grades k-12 as a teacher, instructional coach, reading specialist, and administrator. After a two year hiatus from education, (during which I became a published author—check out my books here http://ow.ly/DPI9v ), I am back in the classroom in a suburban school district in Pennsylvania. I begin my day at the high school where I teach two periods before traveling to the middle school for the remainder of the day. I am privileged to teach a group of students who have experienced struggle with acquiring the reading skills we would expect to see in students of this age. After experiencing years of frustration, I believe that 80% of my job is convincing these students that reading is a skill within their grasp while the remainder of my job consists of trying to find methods for teaching that will result in the learning I’m looking for.

Join me on this journey! I look forward to reading about your journey in the comments. You can also find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/trostlestreasures and Twitter @TrostleMichelle.